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Today’s Top Stories from NBC News

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Good morning, NBC News readers.

Today we take an in-depth look at the battle over school libraries in Texas, including a list of 50 books parents want to ban. Plus, the latest on the Joe Rogan story and the Ukraine-Russia standoff.

Here's what we're watching this Tuesday morning.

Banned: Books on race and sexuality are disappearing from Texas schools in record numbers

School libraries have become battlegrounds after an unprecedented effort by parents and conservative politicians in Texas to ban books dealing with race, sexuality and gender from schools, an NBC News investigation has found.

Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books.

Records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions revealed 75 formal requests by parents or community members to ban books from libraries during the first four months of this school year. In comparison, only one library book challenge was filed at those districts during the same time period a year earlier, records show.

“There have always been efforts to censor books, but what we’re seeing right now is frankly unprecedented,” said Carolyn Foote, a retired school librarian in Austin who’s helping lead the #FREADom campaign.

Read the full article here.

Also on this today, here are 50 books Texas parents want banned from school libraries, nearly all related to titles dealing with racism, gender or sexuality.
And for more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

Tuesday's Top Stories

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OPINION

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Select

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One Fun Thing

Rihanna and ASAP Rocky are reportedly expecting their first child together

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The news was first reported by TMZ and later confirmed by outlets including E! News, which is a subsidiary of NBC News' parent company, NBCUniversal.

Over the weekend, the couple were photographed in the snowy streets of New York City, where Rihanna revealed her baby bump underneath an unbuttoned, oversized pink jacket.